Title: The Hidden Costs of Subsidies: Export Trends in Germany’s Electric Vehicle Market
with Amadeus Bach (University of Mannheim), Davud Rostam-Afschar (University of Mannheim) (draft coming soon)
Abstract: Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) are essential to decarbonize road transportation. Many countries support the purchase of EVs to accelerate the transition towards electric transportation. The largest car market in Europe, Germany, subsidized the purchase of BEVs for many years without enforcing that the car remain in the country. This regulatory loophole could result in subsidized BEVs being exported to another country. Our paper investigates the benefits and potential drawbacks of the BEV subsidy in Germany by estimating excess exports of BEVs compared to new unsubsidized cars driven by the regulation. With this approach, we find an excess of 9% EVs being exported. These additional exports correspond to no less than about €180 million in prior German tax-funded subsidies.
Keywords: Electric mobility, subsidies, environmental regulation
Title: Corporate Climate Litigation and Carbon Emissions
with Amadeus Bach (University of Mannheim), Nicolas Rudolf (University of Lausanne (HEC))
Abstract: The world’s largest companies produce most global emissions, yet efforts to curb them have remained mainly voluntary. Litigation offers a potential tool to compel corporate emission reductions. This paper examines how climate lawsuits affect industry peers of the sued firms. Using a global dataset of corporate climate lawsuits from 1999 to 2024, we employ a staggered difference-in-differences approach comparing close peers of litigated firms to more distant peers within the same industries. We find that after lawsuit filings, close peers initially increase their reported emissions, which might likely reflect greater environmental disclosure. Whereas, following court decisions, close peers reduce emissions. These findings suggest that climate litigation can trigger meaningful spillover effects, influencing corporate behavior beyond the directly targeted firms and strengthening accountability within carbon-intensive industries.
Keywords: Climate litigation, corporate emissions, peer effects, spillover effects, environmental disclosure, carbon intensity
Post-Paris Climate Policies and Emission Reduction: A Meta-Analysis